First Time Buyers - Help & Advice needed (And appreciated)

mattcafc

Heres our background

Im a mature Student (25) who has 2 years remaining of my course. My partner is a keyworker on 25K a year. We have savings of nearly 20k. We have no debts. We have a guarentor who earns over 30K

We are looking to move out (both at parents homes), we were going to rent, but after much advice would prefer to get a mortgage.

We dont want to go above our means, and only plan to purchase a 1 bedroom flat for no more than 150K. Is this achievable in the current climate, and our situation?

Also as a keyworker we do see properties offered to us which are "shared ownership", is this a route to look into?

We currently live in London, but would like to move just outside as we can see a big change in what you get for your money. We have seen places range from £120k to £150k that would be fine for us.

Would getting a mortgage based on our situtation be advised, and would we be able to do it? Is looking to get a mortgage at the current time totally the wrong thing to do? Any advise would be appreciated. We are looking into every option available to us, but want to know as much as possible before we start looking at properties seriously

mattcafc

Think I have posted this in the wrong forum! Oops, can someone move it to - House Buying, Renting & Selling

Thanks

getmore4less

we were going to rent, but after much advice would prefer to get a mortgage

Where has this advice come from? and what was it that makes you think a mortgage is the right thing to do.

not the old renting is deas money I hope.

Do you have any idea where you will be working when you finish?

If not why tie yourself down with a house and mortgage.

Chances are renting will be cheaper.

beecher

mattcafc wrote: »

We dont want to go above our means, and only plan to purchase a 1 bedroom flat for no more than 150K. Is this achievable in the current climate, and our situation?

A mortgage of £135,000 would probably cost you about £900/month. Do you think that is affordable on a household income of £25,000?

I would strongly recommend renting and waiting for house prices to come down.

hostman

Avoid shared ownership schemes, they are a complete con and were just a trick by Government to keep prices overinflated for longer.

You'll struggle to afford a mortgage of £135k on £25k income and do anything else, you'll be able to sit in your house / flat all day / night long doing nowt else, doesn't sound like fun to me. Even with the deposit, the lender should refuse your application on affordability grounds.

Factor in other costs to run the house (anything from £200-£600 a month extra, depends how thrifty you can be with food etc) and you soon realise its very tight.

mattcafc

Thanks for all the advice so far. As I said we really are just learning about the possibilities first, so nothing is set in stone etc

We did look at some places that were £120k. We Gathered with a 25k deposit we could provide, we would need to get a 95k mortgage. Looking at mortgagegenie this says we would pay back just less than £700 a month, which is affordable to us. Though I am a student I do get infrequent work, plus a grant towards living costs due to my course. The grant is a guarenteed 6k a year, plus with my work I will bring home anything between 5k and 15k on top of that, so £700 a month seems reasonable for us.

As hostman said £135k does seem out of reach for us, so 120k looks maximum.

getmore4less, we have friends who work in properties, unfortunatly not as estate agents etc, so cant help us directly, but their opinion is it would be better to find a place to buy, if we can do so with a mortgage less than £800 a month

beecher, we are prepared to wait if thats the best option for us. We are just trying to see if its possible more than anything else. I agree £135k mortgage with repayments of £900 is way too much for us

Thanks for all the help so far

hostman

mattcafc wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice so far. As I said we really are just learning about the possibilities first, so nothing is set in stone etc

We did look at some places that were £120k. We Gathered with a 25k deposit we could provide, we would need to get a 95k mortgage. Looking at mortgagegenie this says we would pay back just less than £700 a month, which is affordable to us. Though I am a student I do get infrequent work, plus a grant towards living costs due to my course. The grant is a guarenteed 6k a year, plus with my work I will bring home anything between 5k and 15k on top of that, so £700 a month seems reasonable for us.

As hostman said £135k does seem out of reach for us, so 120k looks maximum.

getmore4less, we have friends who work in properties, unfortunatly not as estate agents etc, so cant help us directly, but their opinion is it would be better to find a place to buy, if we can do so with a mortgage less than £800 a month

beecher, we are prepared to wait if thats the best option for us. We are just trying to see if its possible more than anything else. I agree £135k mortgage with repayments of £900 is way too much for us

Thanks for all the help so far

If you're a full time student you'll also receive a council tax discount.